But is three a crowd?
by equalsMCsquare
Summary: A/U What if Gale was watching the games with heartbroken jealousy... but not because of Katniss? Rated T for now, stay posted.
1. Chapter 1

A/U What if Gale was watching the games with heartbroken jealousy... but not because of Katniss?

"Gale, shut up. Seriously."

"I'm just saying. I know her; Katniss would bring down the Capitol and the 12 Districts if it meant coming home to Prim."

"Well I guess it's a good thing we're on the same team, right?" Peeta smiled tiredly, running a hand through his messy blond hair.

Gale looked up. Peeta's breath caught in his chest at the expression on the dark-haired boy's face.

He sighed and sat down across from him. "Gale, it won't be so bad. You'll see. Katniss has a real chance in these games."

Kale put his face in his hands and groaned like a man who had seen to much pain and suffering.

Peeta couldn't help the chuckle he emitted.

"Feeling melodramatic are we?" he said softly.

Gale didn't quirk a smile. That was a bad sign, if anything.

The door slammed open, and a single peacekeeper marched in. Peeta got to his feet; had 10 minutes really passed so quickly? He wasn't ready to go.

"Five more minutes," the voice said gruffly through the white helmet.

Peeta watched as he left and the door slammed, before turning back to Gale, who was standing up and stretching.

"I should go so you can say bye to your mother and father," he muttered. But he made no attempt to move.

Peeta snorted. It seemed the normally somber boy couldn't hold in his mirth since his name was called at the podium. Which was just as well. You never know how you'll cope with your world falling apart until it happens. Apparently his method was a cynical kind of humor. Better to laugh than cry... right up until it all goes up in flames, he mused.

"Right. And have her remind me how little of a shot I have against Ms. Everdeen? No, thank you. Anyways, they were in here before you were. I'm sure they've gone back home already. Before you ask, no, there's no one else waiting to say goodbye. Do you have to go say goodbye to Katniss now?"

"Already did," Gale turned to face the other boy. "Peeta, be serious. Do something. Do anything."

Peeta took a deep breath. It felt surreal, that this would be the last time he'd have a conversation like this with the man in front of him. No- thoughts like that would surely do away with the remnants of his sanity. That way lay madness. The most he could do for Gale now was give him the honesty he deserved. He'd earned that at least.

"Katniss is fighting for her sister. I can't get in the way of that. Not when I have nothing nobler to stand for. I'll help your friend. How could I not?" He tried his very best to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He really did.

And then Gale was right in front of him. Peeta's eyes darted to the door reflexively. The taller boy huffed in amusement.

"You care what they all think? After all this?" he murmured.

"I guess not," Peeta muttered, eyes downcast. It was true; what did it matter if he was walking to his death anyways.

And then Gale's hand was on his chin, lifting his eyes up to his.

"Make it worth something, then. Make it all. Worth. _Something_," his voice was a strained whisper as he leaned forward and met Peeta's lips."


	2. Chapter 2

It was Peeta who pulled away first.

"Gale, I-"

"NO."

Peeta eyes flicked open, startled by the ferocity in the other man's voice. Gale held his face between both of his hands, his voice now a in a whispered, fierce plea.

"You can't. After everything. We're finally so _happy_, look at where we are now, Peeta- look! You just _can't_ walk away without even trying to come back. You can't _do_ that to me."

Peeta sighed. He knew their time was limited, but he was at a loss to confront the other man's well-founded fears. He tried to meet Gale's gaze as best he could, but he found he had to avert his eyes from the panicked grief there.

"Gale. There can only be one victor. You know the rules as well as I do. I'm sorry, I really, really am. I'll do everything I can to fight to the end, for you. I promise. But choose _her_. Knowing I can still do that for you, I _will_ send her back, whatever it takes. You have my word."

Gale dropped his hands. His eyes shuttered and became cold.

"If you think that would be what I'd want, then you have never understood."

He turned and all but stormed to the door. He opened it, then hesitated.

"I want you back. Or nothing at all."

The silence he left behind was deafening.


	3. Chapter 3

Katniss didn't know. That much had become obvious after they had their first real talk on the train to the Capitol. Peeta sighed internally. It would have been so much easier to sacrifice himself for her if he knew he was sending her back to him as just a friend. But he knew she loved Gale. And, in his own way, Gale loved her back. It was different than what she would want, but she didn't know that, and perhaps it would be for the best. Maybe Gale would find a way to transform his feelings once Peeta was out of the picture. Katniss and Gale had a much realer shot at happiness than the two boys did anyways.

Yes, it was better this way. Prim and her mother would have Katniss back. Gale would have the life he always secretly wanted. Katniss was _needed_. And Peeta would finally be out of everyone's way.

"Whatever you're thinking right now, you better stop that this moment, boy. We'll never get you out of there alive like that," Haymitch snarked as he walked to the couch. "Now, for your training, I had planned to focus on your natural strength-"

"No."

Haymitch looked up from his notes. He cocked an eyebrow.

"No? My, but aren't we ungrateful. And what, pray tell, do you have in mind instead of strength training."

"Not that part. The other. I'm not planning on getting out alive, Haymitch."

"Really? And here I'd thought District 12 had produced Tributes with a bit more mettle this year. If that's so, then remind me why I'm wasting time on you when I could be with Katniss. Especially since you're the one who requested the individual training."

"Because no one has ever won the games alone. Katniss needs to win. You're going to bring her back Haymitch. Think of it as my dying wish or whatever you want. But if you want to bring one Tribute back this year, then you're going to train me so I can protect her."

Haymitch looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Haymitch, you know I'm right and that this is anyone's best shot."

"I've never met a dead man with an agenda. Most of them are pretty quiet by this time along the way. Katniss can take care of herself, you know."

"I know that. That's why she's a better bet for everyone. But she's too stubborn for us to talk about this in front of her. I'm telling you what I'm going to do, Haymitch; I'm not asking."

"Let me be frank with you boy. Unless your desire to stay alive to keep her alive is stronger than your resignation to your own death in the process, you will not succeed. Now, can you say with utmost certainty that you will be able to keep that up for the two weeks in the arena?"

Peeta's steely glare was answer enough.

"In that case, let's get started. Your training schedule will essentially be the same, but I'm going to tweak some things in our presentation plan at the Capitol. Oh, and Peeta?"

"Hm?"

"Why?"

Peeta heaved a sigh.

"Think of it as for the greater good."


	4. Chapter 4

Gale snorted at the televised commentary. Most people in the mines just didn't watch the projection. It happened every year. But unless it was your own son or daughter, most people just didn't have the time or inclination to care. Sure, the entire District went into a sort of mourning whenever their Tributes died, but it was inevitable, and there was just too much to be done.

"_Our two star-crossed lovers are at it again, folks. Would you look at- be still my beating heart! Oh go on! Kiss him again, Katniss!"_

Katniss was Gale's best friend. There was no denying that. He'd starve before he let her family go hungry, and if it came down to his life or hers, he'd choose hers. But the whole facade of the Pre-Games was a joke of epic proportions. And he was the only person in all the Districts who knew the cause of it.

_Dammit Peeta, why can't you just fight for yourself like everyone else in the arena? Katniss is already doing that. She doesn't need two people on her team when you have none_.

But there was no use to thoughts like this. They only served to fill him with guilt and his throat with bile. Was he wishing his best friend's death, not to mention the death of 21 others, just so he could have Peeta back? No, it isn't like that, he told himself.

_Oh but it is_, said a little voice inside of him.

No, he wanted Katniss back with a burning, searing fervor. How could it be any other way? It's just- argh! Why did it have to be so hard? He wanted both of them, that's the only way it could be.

And Gale had a sinking feeling that he wouldn't be able to hold the one who did come back the way he'd been able to before, knowing their life had cost the other theirs.

_Maybe it would be best if they both died_, he thought savagely. The poor excuse for soap he was using to scrub his hands cracked in half.

_Then I'd just have to join them, and I could have them both again._


	5. Chapter 5

Gale could hear his blood rushing in his ears. The murmuring around him ceased to matter. It had been years since an announcement had been made during the Games. And a change this massive- what? How? They'd never have a regular Games again; every district would send in a pair of 'lovers,' and every year they'd team up until the end. A change of this magnitude-

_Shutup. Shutup shutupshutup_, he pleaded with his racing thoughts.

They were giving him an olive branch. Every day had been agony, with Gale alternating between self-loathing and simply pleading with any entity up above.

It was too perfect. How could all of his prayers have been answered in such a fell swoop.

Other Districts had pairs in the Games still, but there was no question in his mind which team the Capitol was intending to skew the Games in favor of.

Peeta's lovesick act had worked after all.

Gale left the building, and slid down the wall, and began to cry.

Peeta gaped at the sky as the aircraft landed near the ruins of the Cornucopia. No, it couldn't mean- did it? He and Katniss... going home... it couldn't be true.

_Gale._

He looked at Katniss and Katniss looked at him.

"One more time for the cameras?" he asked from the corner of his mouth.

She grinned and threw her arms around him. They both wept.


	6. Chapter 6

Gale paced in his hut. He couldn't stand it. He didn't trust himself to go meet them at the station or at the reception. There'd be time for that afterwards. Endless amounts of time. The thought was dizzying.

Who would he greet first? Could he keep it together for the cameras and the families? He couldn't stand it. He wanted to smother Katniss and simultaneously smack her for her on-camera antics (even though he rationally knew she had saved them both).

And Peeta...

Where would they stand? They had left so many things unsaid. And with Peeta planning to go off and die, had he talked himself out of his feelings for Gale? That would be unbearable. To have him, but not really would be a cruel twist of fate that would surely end Gale.

_How selfish are you? They both come home, and all you care about is how it affects you? Seriously? If they both ignored you for the rest of their existence, you'd still be the luckiest bastard alive._

And so it went. For much longer than was probably healthy, but what were a few more hours on the brink after these hellacious weeks.

The sun finally set, and the camera crews packed it in for the night. Peeta's face ached from smiling. He was ready to go back to scowling for the rest of his life. But wait... he had the rest of his life. The thought itself was inconceivable. What would he do with it? Before the Games he was content to coast along, but how could he go back to that after everything.

"Where are you going? Victor's Village is this way," Katniss reminded him.

Oh. Right. What was a normal existence after all?

"Do they expect us to live together too?" she asked to no one in particular. Her voice had no inflection, she merely sounded resigned and too tired to care either way.

"I doubt it. As morally lax as its citizens seem, they want their golden pair to maintain a chaste public affair. What you do in private, that's between the two of you..." Haymitch smiled wolfishly at them.

No one responded in any way to his quip. The three victors from District 12 were tired, they were homesick, and they were just so done.

But something told Peeta that things were just beginning.


	7. Chapter 7

"Katniss, fetch me some rosemary from Bethesda when you go to the market today."

"Prim, would you like to come with me?" Katniss knew it was her mother who made the trips to the black market while she was gone. She decided when she came back that it was time to get Prim on her feet. Her little sister was smart, but not so eager to learn anything scrupulous.

As reluctant as she was to expose her sister to such a lifestyle, Katniss realized it had to be done.

Prim looked up from chopping the vegetables for dinner.

"No, not today, Katniss," she said thoughtfully.

"I'll be back soon." What? She'd tried. And it's not like she was particularly keen on taking Prim down that path. There'd always be tomorrow.

_Tomorrow_...

The sheer concept made her want to weep. There'd be more tomorrows for her and Prim and their mother.

As she walked down her front steps, she saw a familiar figure enter the Victor's Village.

"Gale?"

He looked startled. While she hadn't been expecting him this morning, she supposed their reunion was overdue. She had been home almost 3 days, and she'd been mostly isolated to Prim and her mother.

"Katniss, I was coming to see you."

"I figured," she quirked a smile. "Why else would you be in here? Visiting Haymitch?"

A crease appeared between his eyebrows. "You do remember that Peeta and I were friends as well, right?"

Oh shit. She _had_ forgotten about that. It had never occurred to her how Gale's friendship with both of them would conflict him during the Games; she had assumed he'd pick a side. How else could anyone survive without their heart being torn in two and completely losing their minds?

_Maybe he did pick a side_, a voice inside her head said.

No. Impossible. Even Peeta picked Katniss's side. Plus, Gale and Peeta weren't _that_ close. Where was this random insecurity coming from?

"Come to the market with me."

There was a moment of hesitation, and her heart puttered. Could two weeks really have been so long?

Then he relaxed, and suddenly he was her old friend again.

"Of course," he said with an easy smile.

And something inside her broke. She threw her arms around him and buried her head in the shoulder of his not-thick-enough coat.

She tried to step back, embarrassed. But he just tightened their embrace.

"I missed you so much Catnip. I was terrified the entire time you were gone. I could barely function," when they broke apart, his eyes were sad. It was hard to feel the joy that reunions should have sparked when everyone was so emotionally exhausted all the time.

_Gale_. Her oldest friend. The friend she could show her true feelings to. Not that she didn't trust Prim and Madge and the rest, but she had to remain strong for them, while Gale would hold her while she fell apart. How could she have doubted him for even a heartbeat?

They stood for a moment, hands in their pockets, simply taking each other in.

Gale puffed out a breath of hot air. "Well, what are we waiting for Catnip? To market we go."


	8. Chapter 8

Why had they waited so long? It had been almost a week since the victors' glorious return, and Gale and Peeta hadn't seen each other yet.

The people of District 12 lived quiet lives. Essential schooling, dreary work days, marriages of convenience (occasionally, love), produce kids for Reaping, rinse and repeat. Katniss would come home with food, her sister and mother would prepare it, and then they'd do the same thing again the next day. Men worked at the mines, women in the houses.

Peeta was alone in the Victor's Village. His parents didn't want to move away from the bakery, and while he still went home for many meals, there was a part of him that really needed the space he lacked in the cramped apartment above the bakery with a handful of brothers. He told his parents it was in case of surprise camera crew visits, but that wasn't really the truth.

That meant that House 3 in the VV was always even quieter than House 2. House 1 was quieter when Haymitch was sober, Peeta mused. His greatest fear was that he'd become like the jaded old alcoholic who had served as their mentor. He had saved their lives, yes, but that doesn't mean he was exactly someone to look up to.

So to occupy his time, Peeta painted. Effie had offered to bring him the necessary supplies from the Capitol to set up a sort of studio in the living room. It's not like he wanted to spend his extravagant winnings on anything else.

And that's what he was doing when there was a knock at the door. He went through his mental list. Katniss had dropped by earlier with Prim and a message from her mother telling him that if he ever needed anything he was welcome to stay with them. His parents wouldn't be visiting this soon, not after he was there for dinner last night. Effie? Haymitch?

He shouldn't have been surprised when he opened the door.

"Gale?"


	9. Chapter 9

Gale's stomach was doing lopsided flips. He was nervous. He was excited. Something about prolonging the agony, knowing that he could see Peeta whenever he wanted seemed like a necessary torture after being away from him against his will.

"Don't look so surprised. You're the celebrity, not me," he said smoothly as he slipped past the shell-shocked boy at the door.

"What are you- I mean why did you-" Peeta cleared his throat and paused, after mentally hearing Effie chirp "Manners!" at him.

"But you were so eloquent on TV! Don't tell me that was all a sham," Gale teased with a grin. His hands were in his pockets and he looked at home in Peeta's entranceway, while Peeta himself felt like the unwanted guest at the door.

Peeta sighed, looking too weary for a man his age. For that's what he was now: a man. No longer the innocent dough-boy Gale fell in love with.

Katniss had taken the Games almost in stride. Sure, she was now plagued by nightmares and her eyes were opened to the hypocrisy of a world she couldn't change, but the world had not been particularly kind to the Everdeens even before that. She hadn't lost everything at the games.

Gale could relate to that. That was one of the reasons the pair clicked so well. Now Peeta... Peeta had known hardship before the Games, just like anyone else in District 12. He knew what it was like to be the neglected family member. But somehow, his coping method was to kill the world with kindness, and stubbornly see it as a brighter place.

Katniss lives for her family. Peeta lived because he believed life was worth living.

Looking at him now, Gale could no longer see the characteristic optimism in the baker's son. As Gale contemplated him, Peeta shifted on his feet uncomfortably.

"Why don't I bring you some water. Have a seat- er..."

The couches had all been moved for the studio.

Gale looked around and chuckled. "On the stairs? Don't mind if I do."

He proceeded to do so, making it look natural and regal even, just the way Gale would do. Peeta couldn't help but think that if it had been Gale and Katniss in the arena, he would have won the sponsors much more easily, and Katniss wouldn't have resented the lies she spun for the camera.

But then he thought of Gale going through the Games, and his heart twisted. He wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy, and this was Gale he was thinking about.

He handed Gale an elaborate mug from the Capitol with water. It looked so out of place in his soot blackened hands.

Peeta leaned on the wall at the foot of the stairs, arms crossed, waiting for Gale to speak.

Gale pretended to be absorbed in his water, and silence reigned for a while. He was in no hurry.

When he finished, he put the mug down, and got to his feet.

"What I said before you left, I shouldn't have-"

Then Peeta reached up and kissed him.


End file.
